Editors' Review

Apple Music enables you to stream on-demand tunes and videos, as well as international, 24/7 radio. The new streaming subscription service currently works with iOS devices, Mac, and PC, with Android and Apple TV compatibility coming this fall.

Pros

Multiple ways to search: Apple Music offers more than 30 million songs, which you can search by Trending, New Music, Hot Tracks, Recent Releases, Top Songs, Hot Albums, New Artists, Spotlights, Recommended Videos, and Discovered on Connect (Music's social media component). You can also limit these searches by genre.

Highly curated: Apple Music editors and participating music-magazine editors offer their sonic recommendations via playlists. You may also select seasonal playlists by activity, such as BBQing, Romancing, or Working Out. Each activity section has a couple dozen playlists to choose from, so you'll never go hungry for new music.

Plenty of options: Select a song, and you can choose to play it next, play it after that, start a Pandora-like station based on the track, add it to your music, make it available offline, show it in the iTunes Store, or share it over social media. When you love a song that you're playing, click the heart on the song page to help Apple give you better recommendations. All of this functionality worked well in testing.

Choose Artists For You: Under Account, select Choose Artists For You to inform Apple about what you're into. Bubbles appear with genre titles. Tap once on the ones you like, twice on the ones you love, and press and hold on the ones that you don't care for. Click Next to go to a page with bubbles filled with artist names. Perform the same tapping gestures as before for the ones you like or dislike.

Siri commands: Say "Play the No. 1 song from January 1, 1984," and Music will start streaming Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's "Say Say Say." Unfortunately, it doesn't always work as planned. We asked for Madonna's "Open Your Heart" but instead got a "Borderline/Open Your Heart" medley from the "Glee" cast.

Connect: Follow your favorite artists on Apple Music to gain instant access to their singles, albums, and videos, as well as exclusive photos and posts. Apple automatically follows all the artists from your iTunes music library -- you can unfollow them or change the default setting to stop automatic following. You can also follow new artists and genres, such as Classic Rock, Rock, and Pop.

Beats 1: One of our favorite Apple Music features is Beats 1, an international, 24/7 radio station, fronted by popular British DJ Zane Lowe. If you're not a fan, listen to other radio stations based on your favorite artists and genres.

Long free trial: Click on the Apple Music icon for the first time and you'll be given the option to start a three-month free trial. You are then given two choices: Individual plan, which costs $9.99 per month and a Family plan for up to six people for $14.99 per month.

Cons

Home Sharing removal: With the new Music app, you can no longer share your iTunes music library with other users on your Wi-Fi network.

Delays and bugs: When we clicked on videos, only the songs played while the videos slowly loaded, which got annoying fast. By the time the videos were watchable, we had moved on. Also, when we tried to dismiss genres and artists we disliked in Choose Artists For You, they reappeared, continuing to clutter our screen as we tried to narrow our selections. Finally, once we clicked all the artists and genres we loved, it took a while for Apple Music to load tailored recommendations.

Bottom Line

Apple Music is an excellent option for music fans. With over 30 million songs to choose from, expertly curated playlists, Beats 1 radio, and plenty of social options, there's no reason not to register.

Publisher's Description

We are profoundly passionate about music. It's a force that's driven and inspired us from day one. So we've set out to make it better. To bring you more music than ever with access to over 30 million songs for just $9.99 a month, or $14.99 for your family.2 To give you personal recommendations from people who know and love music. To deepen the connection between artists and fans. To reimagine radio with a 24/7, global station.

This is Apple Music. And it's just the beginning.

Single Membership - $9.99 /mo.
For less than the price of most albums, you get access to the full Apple Music library, expert recommendations, our take on the best new music, and unlimited skips on our radio stations.

Family Membership - $14.99 /mo.
The whole world of music for the whole family. Up to six people can enjoy unlimited access to Apple Music on their devices.

Having access to all of iTunes huge library, plus all of your own ripped music (NO ADDITIONAL COST as incorrectly noted above, and soon to be 100k of your own music not matched in the store - was 25k) is huge for anyone who is a music fan. All your devices have access - and can download for access where internet isn't available.
Radio has always been decent, with user seeded algorithms working as good or better than pandora etc, this with iBeats is free for everyone. But the new human selected playlists are radically smarter and better than anything else out there.

Cons

$10 a month is just another recurring expense to absorb for those on a budget. Family share is a better deal, but has restrictions which limit "friend" sharing like netflix.
You will probably buy less, which offsets the cost, but when you quit, you won't keep your new faves...

Summary

Try the 3 month free trial, dig deep, and see if you don't get addicted yourself. If you are serious about constantly exploring music, likely you will stick with it. It's like buying 1 album a month, but you get anything you want anytime anywhere.
Unlimited music access - holy grail for those who have broad tastes or follow new releases.

Lots of music . Perfect for those who are still searching their tastes and dislikes.

Cons

Excessive costs. Family rate is good., but single rate is excessive. Cloud storage is also high for annual cost Too many bugs and operating shortfalls. Bites off more than it can chew. Need a high upscale computer to even stream the music and video. No access for Android .

Summary

Cons far outweigh the positives, yet Download recommends this expensive approach. I could never recommend something exclusive and overpriced.

LOL... what blather. Project much? Because if YOUR review is in any way "unbiased" then the pope is mormon. "Excessive cost"... LOL... compared to WHAT exactly?? And what are you getting instead?? Get real. You're just some Freetard Android user that is all miffed that Apple has once again upped the ante and you can have no part in it. Get over yourself.

And the cloud storage isn't MANDATORY, so maybe know what you're going on about ahead of time?? "Upscale computer"... LOL. Hilarious. As if MY IPHONE were an "upscaled computer" and it works brilliantly there. Oops... someone doesn't have the foggiest what they're talking about. Just another blatant troll bent on hating' on Apple for the sake of justifying his own bad decisions. Poor thing.

E-mail This Review

Thank You, !

Report Offensive Content

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.